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Santa Ono, new UC president: Santa Ono talks about becoming president at UC.

Santa Ono, seen here in front of Tangeman University Center, has been named UC's 28th president. / The Enquirer/Carrie Cochran

FIVE CHALLENGES FOR ONO

Find new dollars. Taxpayer dollars will continue to wither, so Ono will need to tap new revenue streams. Raising private donations will be paramount, even after UC completes its $1 billion capital campaign. If the new president can find enough private money to fund ambitious goals, UC can thrive. Find new students. The number of Ohio high school graduates will drop 9.3 percent from 2006 to 2022, shedding more than 12,000 graduates a year, according to the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education. UC will have to reach into other markets, both in Ohio and across the country. Ono clearly has national ambitions for UC, and he hopes students do too. Different office, same Ono? The new president has a host of new duties, which might make it hard to Tweet from every meeting and play in softball games against students. He obviously wants to be liked, but will have to make tough decisions. Can he straddle that line? Avoid the pitfalls. A toxic relationship with the Board of Trustees ruined Greg Williams’ tenure at UC. Ono is now a first-time president with nine demanding bosses who declined to interview any other candidates. If he can’t navigate those waters, it will be fair to ask whether he was rushed into the job. Good seats, hey buddy? Both Nippert Stadium and Fifth Third Arena are due for major renovations, but filling either facility has been a challenge. Even if UC becomes a consistent winner in both football and basketball, it still needs to sell more tickets to put the sports program on solid footing.

SANTA JEREMY ONO FILE

• Title: President, University of Cincinnati • Age: 49 • Salary: Currently $465,300 counting an administrative stipend, but he will negotiate a new contract. • Born: Vancouver, Canada; raised mostly in Baltimore. • Parents: Both Japanese immigrants. Father was a mathematics professor; mother a teacher. • About his name: A family version of "Santaro," a Japanese folk story character. • Residence: Mount Lookout • Family: Wife Wendy Yip and two daughters, 8 and 14 • Academic training: Immunology. • His recent research has focused on inflammation of the eye.

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Santa Ono’s journey to becoming a university president ended Tuesday at the University of Cincinnati.

The medical researcher and unrelenting cheerleader for UC is now the 28th president at the region’s biggest university, a job he has looked toward for years.

“It’s a natural growth for him,” said Ono’s wife ,Wendy Yip, after the election by UC’s Board of Trustees. “At every step of the way, he’s had an opportunity to spread his wings.”

Now Ono, 49, will confront a host of challenges, far broader and more complex than those he faced as provost after arriving at UC in 2010.

He’ll have to find new funding and new students as state funding cuts and demographic shifts take hold, plus avoid the turf battles that turned the board’s relationship with predecessor Greg Williams sour.

That didn’t sound possible Tuesday with the parade of UC students, professors and board members rushing to praise Ono’s humility, his intellect and his hard work.

One story: At a watch party for one of the presidential debates earlier this month, one professor found Ono setting up chairs.

“Anybody who has gotten a chance to know him, they’ll tell you it seems like he’s been in Cincinnati all of his life,” trustee Rob Richardson said. “I have never seen anyone, in my experience here, who shows the dedication and passion that Dr. Ono feels for students.”

A decade at UC

Ono said he plans on staying at UC for 10 years. He recently got a raise to $465,300 (counting an administrative stipend), but will have to negotiate a new contract with the board.

He’s already intensely popular with students because he has trouble hiding his enthusiasm and is active on Twitter.

“If Twitter went away tomorrow, it wouldn’t matter because Dr. Ono has a passion for the student experience,” student body president Lane Hart said.

Trustee Tom Cassady said he questioned Ono in an interview this month on whether he could get beyond that reputation as a students-first president and say “no.”

“You assured me, and others who have dealt with you have said, that you are quite capable of saying no,” Cassady said. “And that’s a rare skill.”

Ono said UC’s reputation is spreading nationally and said he’ll continue to be focused on students.

“It’s our responsibility and we had better get it right,” Ono said. “And we will.”

Ono is the first Asian-American president of UC and only the fifth Asian sitting president of a major U.S. research university.

Williams resigned suddenly Aug. 21, six days before the start of fall classes. Ono had served as interim president until Tuesday. Last week, a 28-member search committee unanimously recommended his appointment without interviewing any other candidates.